Where did Brandon Crawford rank among MLB shortstops in 2019?

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PHOENIX, AZ – APRIL 02: Brandon Crawford #35 of the San Francisco Giants bats against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the MLB opening day game at Chase Field on April 2, 2017 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /

It was a down season offensively for San Francisco Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford. Just how bad was it compared to others at the position?

The San Francisco Giants handed Brandon Crawford the starting shortstop job midway through the 2011 season and he has been a staple at the position ever since.

While he peaked in 2015 with a 113 OPS+ and 21 home runs in a 5.4 WAR season, he was still a solid contributor as recently as 2018. That season, he posted a 100 OPS+ with 28 doubles, 14 home runs and 2.5 WAR while earning a spot on the NL All-Star team.

The 2019 season was a different story entirely.

The 32-year-old remained the team’s primary shortstop, but his numbers were down across the board, and the team also used Donovan Solano (19 games), Mauricio Dubon (9 games), Yangervis Solarte (4 games) and Abiatal Avelino (1 game) at the position.

All told, San Francisco Giants shortstops finished the season with a .248/.315/.392 line and a .707 OPS that ranked 23rd in the majors.

While that one all-encompassing offensive statistic tells us that the Giants were one of the worst-performing teams at the position performers at the position, what we set out to answer was where Crawford ranked individually.

For the sake of this exercise, we limited the field of players under consideration to guys who spent at least 51 percent of their time at the shortstop position and also tallied at least 150 plate appearances.

That narrowed the field to just 36 players and ahead is a rundown of where Brandon Belt ranked among that group in a number of statistical categories.

Brandon Crawford

PA: 560—17th
BA: .228—31st
OBP: .304—29th
SLG: .350—t-32nd
OPS: .654—32nd
OPS+: 75—32nd
H: 114—23rd
2B: 24—21st
HR: 11—t-25th
RBI: 59—t-20th
R: 58—t-23rd
WAR: 0.6—t-30th

Simply put, it was a brutal season at the plate for Brandon Crawford.

The only everyday shortstop with worse offensive numbers was Orlando Arcia of the Milwaukee Brewers, who hit just .223/.283/.350 with a 64 OPS+ and minus-0.1 WAR in 152 games.

Of course, Arcia was making the league-minimum, while Crawford took home $15.2 million.

That price tag won’t change anytime soon, as he’s owed $30.4 million over the final two years of a six-year, $75 million contract.

Can he bounce back?

His .274 BABIP was well below his .295 career mark, so he dealt with some bad luck, and his hard-contact rate actually jumped from 36.2 to 39.3 percent, so there is some reason for optimism.

Given his contract situation, he’ll get every chance to earn his salary next year, and with top prospect Marco Luciano still a few years away, there’s no immediate in-house threat to his playing time.

He’s also still a solid defender, albeit not the same dynamic shortstop he was in his prime.

Next. Where did Brandon Belt rank among MLB first basemen?

The San Francisco Giants will almost certainly begin the 2020 season with Brandon Crawford penciled into the starting shortstop role. Can he return to form?

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It was a down season offensively for San Francisco Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford. Just how bad was it compared to others at the position?

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